Category Archives: NoWallNoBan

The Statue of Liberty stands as a symbol that this nation was built on immigration. This past term (and apparently this upcoming term) immigration was a significant part of the Supreme Court docket. Of the eight cases involving immigration or the border, the Supreme Court issued decisions in five, sent one back to the lower courts (in light of one of the four decisions), and set two for re-argument in the fall (as both were argued before Justice Gorsuch joined the bench, the implication is that there was a 4-4 split or that the majority lacked a consensus on the legal theory for the result). In addition, the Supreme Court is going to hear argument on the travel ban.

Going in chronological order, at the end of May, the Supreme Court issued a decision on the crimes that trigger deportation — narrowly interpreting the statute to limit the state offenses that trigger deportation. The decision involved charges of sexual abuse against minors with the court defining minor as under 16 and requiring that the state offense be limited to minors under sixteen. On the cases that were decided, as discussed in an earlier post, the Supreme Court struck down the law governing birth citizenship when a child is born abroad to parents with split citizenship (i.e. one is a U.S. citizen and the other is not) because the law discriminated based on the gender of the U.S. citizen.

In the next to last week of the term, the Supreme Court issued three more decisions. The first case — involving a challenge to immigrants arrested after 9/11 — technically was not about immigration but about the right to sue the government and government official for civil rights violations. While there is a federal statute authorizing individuals to sue state officials, there is no such statute for civil rights violations by federal officials. While the Supreme Court has authorized such suits in a limited number of circumstances, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to expand that right. The Supreme Court found that the claim in the most recent case were not similar to the previously recognized claims and decided that it was up to Congress to decide whether to enact a statute authorizing such claims. That decision also led to the decision to send the second civil rights case (involving a cross-border shooting) back to the lower court to review whether it was the type of claim that could be brought. (The lower court had originally decided the case on the issue of whether it was a civil rights violation. In sending the case back, the Supreme Court raised doubts about some of that reasoning.)Continue Reading...

Last night, we in Philly heard that hundreds of headstones were turned over Saturday night at a Jewish cemetery, a week after similar vandalism in St. Louis. Many people are saddened, appalled and surprised. They should be sad and appalled, but not surprised. This is Trump’s America.

I have been working with Indivisible locally, and I am heartened by the number of people completely new to politics who are suddenly aware, and ready to take action to both resist the Trump agenda, and help elect people who will serve America, and not what is actually the Bannon administration.

I keep hearing two themes through my work with Indivisible. First, people are concerned about what they can do to stop hate. And by “hate” I mean not just the vandalism, but the verbal abuse people see foisted upon innocent people, just for the colour of their skin, The ICE roundups are another form of hate: people question what they can do to help those who will be caught up in the dragnets. Hate also in the form of the administration’s moves against sick people (“repeal Obamacare” and dismantle Medicaid), Hate in the form of transgender bathroom rights. I’m a doctor, and I’m telling you, the only thing that matters is that you wash your hands. (If you’re a long-term reader, you remember back to SARS and fingers, nails, fingers, fingers, fingers.) And let’s not forget the hate of literacy in terms of claiming the media is the “enemy of the people”. The hate is creeping down from the Cheeto Team, and up from the GOP state legislatures.Continue Reading...

Reprinted with permission from http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2017/01/guide-disrespecting-donald-trump.html

One week ago, more than FOUR MILLION people worldwide marched in solidarity. If you were at any of the marches, you know how awesome a feeling it was. In the intervening week, we’ve watched the White House try to accomplish things, and seen the huge amount of pushback: from government agencies, from elected lawmakers and from regular citizens.

I’ve seen two overwhelming contrasts: first, the Trump group knows absolutely nothing about the actual business of governing nor foreign policy, and second, that the power of the people is absolute. The administration tried to shut down communication between agencies, and their ability to communicate with the people: they created alt-twitter accounts. The administration tried to convince people that Mexico would pay for the wall: Mexico said no. They said “okay, we’ll add a 20% tariff” and suddenly everyone understood those dollars would not come from Mexico, but rather from people in America trying to buy things like fruit, vegetables and cars…it would just be a VAT. Suddenly it’s being walked back.Continue Reading...